More than meets the eye
by siyentista
Summary: There is more to Soifon and Yoruichi than meets the eye.


Author's notes:

For some reason, I took this story down a while ago, but since I can't remember the reason, I'm putting it back up.

**More than meets the eye**

Yoruichi had what anyone would consider a stressful day. She woke up at first light of day to train both, the Onmitsukidou and the Second Division, before listening to various reports, receiving orders from Central 46 and the Soutaichou and subsequently assembling her troops to give out orders. While that was fairly routine, her men seemed to be extraordinary incompetent that day, and she had trouble stopping herself from losing her temper in front of them.

By mid-morning, she was already at the Shihouin estate, locking horns with the stubborn elders that insisted she get married and produce an heir. That meeting ran over lunch and she had to ignore (and cover up) the sound of her growling stomach during a prolonged Captain's Meeting about many things she deemed inconsequential, and a few more controversial things that ultimately led to a heated bickering amongst the captains.

Tired and frustrated, she was welcomed into her office that afternoon by a mountain of paperwork—apparently the result of her lieutenant falling ill after the training concluded earlier. Not even halfway, through the second stack, it started getting dark. Many long hours and many cups of tea later, she found herself staring at the empty "IN" box with wide, red-rimmed, glazed over eyes, its usual golden shine all but snuffed out by all events prior.

Yoruichi wanted nothing more than to go to sleep and wipe her brain clean of the crap she had had to deal with the whole day. However, the mix of adrenaline and caffeine coursing through her veins left her wide awake, despite her fatigue.

With a blank look in her eyes, she slipped out of her office. One right turn, two left turns, straight to the end of the hall she trudged, barely registering the snores that she heard through the walls from the idiots that gave her day a bad start. She opened the door, took a few heavy steps, and sat herself heavily at the edge of the bed.

Soifon was a light sleeper. She had sensed someone moving in the halls, but ignored it for it wasn't that unusual for someone to be coming back from a mission this late at night. When the motion stopped in front of her door, she had taken Suzumebachi underneath the sheets to prepare herself for an attack even as she pretended to be asleep. The door opened to give her a breath of a familiar reiatsu that told her to still her weapon, but being slightly disoriented by sleep, she didn't identify the intruder until she flopped on her bed and called, "Soifoooon…"

"Yoruichi-sama!" Soifon sat up immediately, but she was not able to completely rise from the bed before her captain's torso dropped onto her leg.

"Can't sleep," the woman whined, a childish pout half hidden by the comforter her visage was settled in.

Soifon frowned for a moment, before her face softened in understanding. She laid her hand gently on Yoruichi's shoulder. "I'll be with you shortly, Yoruichi-sama," she assured in a quiet voice. She, too, was tired from a mission, but she lived to satisfy her lady's needs, and tonight was just another night to prove it.

Pleased by the response, the caramel-skinned commander quietly sauntered out of her bodyguard's quarters and into her own across the hall.

As soon as the older woman left, Soi Fong started rummaging through her closet. Finding what she needed, she pulled out a long case, dusty from disuse, and made her way to her mistress's room. She entered to find Yoruichi laying down with her legs dangling off the edge of her bed, much like her position had been when she called for Soifon. Shaking her head lightly at her superior's behavior, she sat on her haunches at the foot of the bed, by the woman's legs and lay her quarry on her lap. Not a moment after, her practiced hands began to work their magic.

Hearing the first notes being played on the shamisen, Yoruichi smiled. It was too bad that the girl rarely ever played for anyone. She really was an excellent musician.

Drowning herself in the melodies and harmonies, Yoruichi marveled at how well Soifon knew her, and how the mere mention of having difficulty sleeping was enough to let her know what she needed—a little music to calm the nerves, a tiny lullaby to send her to sleep. At the same time, she found herself amused by the stark contrast of how little everyone else seemed to know about her bodyguard.

She was so shy, servile and unassuming that everyone seemed to forget that she was a noble—a lower noble, but still a noble. The fact of the matter was that she was a lot like Yoruichi. Families like theirs valued the mastery of skills and bodies of knowledge. While the Shihouin and Fon clans prized the skills of a warrior above all, they never neglected art or music. After all, to be able to play an instrument was still a skill, and truth be told, the accuracy and dexterity one gained from it ultimately proved useful for combat. More than the relative similarity in social status, it was their matched appreciation of music that gave Yoruichi a feeling of kinship with the younger woman.

As Soifon's deft fingers flew across the strings of the shamisen, a hauntingly sweet tune drifted to the captain's ears. Without so much as a voluntary twitch or stretch, she felt the knots in her shoulders relaxing, the foul adrenaline in her veins receding. When Yoruichi's eyelids started getting heavier, she pulled herself up the bed, startling the petite woman momentarily and causing her to stumble on her notes. Had Yoruichi been wide awake, she would have teased the girl for the hot blush that developed from making such a small mistake. Instead, her last thought as she fell asleep was that there was so much more to Soifon than meets the eye.

When Soifon noted that her master's breathing got heavier, she finished the last few bars of the song she was playing and stopped to observe her captain. She sat there a little longer than necessary, telling herself that she was simply making sure that she had indeed fulfilled her duty and that the captain wasn't about to wake up due to the sudden loss of sound.

Then an idea came to her. She wasn't entirely sure that it would be appropriate, but when the captain shivered slightly, she decided that it would be fine to tuck the woman in properly. In all likelihood, she would fail to notice that she had been tucked in or think that she had done it herself as she was falling asleep. Somehow the idea both, relieved and saddened Soifon.

As she pulled the covers up beneath Yoruichi's chin, the woman snuggled further into the blanket and smiled contentedly. Though it was obvious that the violet-haired woman was completely gone to the world at that moment, Soifon returned the smile.

She was so strong and so admirable—a captain of the Gotei 13, commander of the Onmituskidou and head of one of the Four Great Noble Houses. Most people believed she was invincible, and yet like everyone, she suffered from stress and sometimes had trouble sleeping. Like everyone else, she had her preferred method of dealing with those problems. Soifon was still pleasantly shocked that her mistress's method involved music—her music. Her last thoughts as she left the quarters revolved around how lucky she was that she was close enough to the goddess to know that there was more to Shihouin Yoruichi than meets the eye.

The End


End file.
